Food Riots Possible - Military Prepared to Intervene

From an article entitled "Obama Orders Military To Prepare For Spring Food Riots", posted by the Posted by EU Times on Jan 13th, 2011

A grim report prepared by France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) obtained by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) states that president’s Obama and Sarkozy have “agreed in principal” to create a joint US-European military force to deal exclusively with a Global uprising expected this spring as our World runs out of food.

According to this report, Sarkozy, as head of the G-20 group of developed Nations, called for and received an emergency meeting with Obama this past Monday at the White House wherein he warned his American counterpart that the shock rise in food prices occurring due to an unprecedented series of disasters was threatening the stability of the entire World and could lead to the outbreak of Total Global War.

Just last week French Prime Minister Francois Fillon underlined that one of France’s top G-20 priorities was to find a collective response to “excessive volatility” in food prices now occurring, a statement joined by Philippe Chalmin, a top economic adviser to the French government, who warned the World may face social unrest including food riots in April as grain prices increase to unprecedented highs.

The fears of the French government over growing Global instability was realized this past week after food riots erupted in Algeria and Tunisia and left over 50 dead. So dire has the situation become in Tunisia that their government this morning rushed in massive amounts of troops and tanks to their capital city Tunis and instituted a Nationwide curfew in an order to quell the growing violence.

The United Nations, also, warned this past Friday that millions of people are now at risk after food prices hit their highest level ever as Global wheat stocks fell to 175.2 million tons from 196.7 million tons a year ago; Global corn stocks are said may be 127.3 million tons at the end of this season, compared with last month’s USDA outlook for 130 million tons; and Global soybean inventories will drop to 58.78 million tons at the end of this season, from 60.4 million tons a year earlier.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, further warned this past week that rising food prices are “a threat to global growth and social stability” as our World, for the first time in living memory, has been warned is just “one poor harvest away from chaos”.

Important to note about how dire the Global food situation has become is to understand the disasters that have befallen our World’s top wheat growing Nations this past year, and who in descending order are: China, India, United States, Russia, France, Canada, Germany, Ukraine, Australia and Pakistan.

From China’s disaster: 2010 China drought and dust storms were a series of severe droughts during the spring of 2010 that affected Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hebei and Gansu in the People’s Republic of China as well as parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Thailand, and dust storms in March and April that affected much of East Asia. The drought has been referred to as the worst in a century in southwestern China.

From India’s disaster: A record heat wave and growing water crisis in India are forcing politicians to consider implementing user fees and other measures to conserve water. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday instructed ministers and officials to prepare a strategic plan to face an impending food crisis as there were signs that the World is to confront a food shortage by next April.

From Russia’s disaster: (10% of total World’s output, 20% for export) they were hit by the highest recorded temperatures Russia has seen in 130 years of recordkeeping; the most widespread drought in more than three decades; and massive wildfires that have stretched across seven regions, including Moscow.

From France’s disaster: The French government lowered their wheat crop forecast by 2.7% over last year due to drought and cold weather.

From Canada’s disaster: Record setting drought has affected their main grain producing provinces in the Western part of their Nation.

From Ukraine’s disaster: (the World’s top producer of barley and sixth biggest of wheat) hit as hard as Russia by fire and drought to the point they have halted all their exports of grains in 2011.

From Australia’s disaster: Fears of a Global wheat shortage have risen after the Queensland area of Australia was hit by calamitous flooding. Andrew Fraser, Queensland’s State Treasurer, described the floods as a “disaster of biblical proportions”. Water is covering land the size of France and Germany. It is expected to reach over 30 feet deep in some areas in coming days.

From Pakistan’s disaster: Floods have submerged 17 million acres of Pakistan’s most fertile crop land, have killed 200,000 herd of livestock and have washed away massive amounts of grain and left farmers unable to meet the fall deadline for planting new seeds, which implies a massive loss of food production in 2011, and potential long term food shortages.

Not only have the vast majority of our World’s top wheat producers been affected, but also one of the main grain producing regions on the Planet, South America, has been hit by disasters too where an historic drought has crippled Argentina and Bolivia, and Brazil, that regions largest Nation, has been hit with catastrophic floods that have killed nearly 400 people in the past few days alone.

Even the United States has been hit as a catastrophic winter has seen 49 of their 50 States covered by snow causing unprecedented damage to their crops in Florida due to freezing weather, and record setting rains destroying massive numbers of crops in their most important growing region of California.

And if you think that things couldn’t get any worse you couldn’t be more mistaken as South Korea (one of the most important meat exporters in Asia) has just this past week had to destroy millions of farm animals after an outbreak of the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease was discovered.

To how horrific the Global food situation will become this year was made even more grim this past month when the United States reported that nearly all of their honey bee and bumblebee populations have died out, and when coupled with the “mysterious” die-off of the entire bat population in America means that the two main pollinators of fruit and vegetable plants will no longer be able to do their jobs leading to crop losses this report warns will be “biblical and catastrophic”.

Chillingly to note is that after meeting with Sarkozy, Obama began implementing his Nation’s strategy for keeping the truth of this dire events from reaching the American people by ordering all US citizens to have an Internet ID so that they can be tracked and jailed should they begin telling the truth.

And so today, as agricultural traders and analysts warn that the latest revision to US and Global stocks means there is no further room for weather problems, a new cyclone is preparing to hit Australia, brutal winter weather in India has killed nearly 130, and more snow is warned to hit America, and we’re not even two full weeks into 2011… may God have mercy on us all.

But He also expects us to take care of ourselves and others. Prepare and prepare well.

Seeds and Growing Food Needs to Be Important to the Urban Survivor

Possibly the hardest things for Survival Preppers, especially Urban Survival preppers to get their heads around is stockpiling seeds in order to grow their own food.

I know many Survivalists who have stocked food, suitable firearms, plenty of ammunition, Bug Out Bags packed, and all the latest tactical and survival gear. More often than not the biggest deficiency in Survival plans is planning to grow your own food and to stockpile seeds to enable this.

Growing your own food is also a very good and viable way to reduce your dependency on commercial foods and this would become important during a slow gradual economic collapse, as we are in right now.

The Urban Survivor has two choices when it comes to stockpiling seeds; hybrid and non-hybrid seeds.

Non-Hybrid Seeds: Are natural, non-engineered seeds that when they grow also produce seeds that can be collected and used to grow more food. They are also referred to as Open Pollinated seeds, which generally are more robust and hardier than hybrids. It is thought that non-hybrids produce vegetables or fruits with better flavor.

Hybrid Seeds: Hybrid seeds are intentionally bred to create a better yield, better resistant to disease and drought and product a more standard fruit or vegetable with uniform color.

The Survival Planner should stock non-hybrid seeds – and a lot of them. One of the reasons to stock hybrid seeds, as well, is to be able to grow food in temporary locations that you may depart before the harvest is completed and seeds for the future can be recovered. Hybrid seed’s are cheaper and available at most any hardware or home improvement store, and, can be excellent barter material.

There will be some people that advise Survival Planners to only buy non-hybrid seeds. I think the priority should be: 1 – have seeds, hybrid or non-hybrid, 2 – have seeds both hybrid and non-hybrid, 3 – have hybrid seeds for year to year grows. Get my point?

But planning on a continuous food supply doesn’t stop with stockpiling seeds. The complete Urban Survivor should have a working knowledge about composting (creating your own fertilizer); container gardening, indoor gardening, hydroponics gardening, harvesting and preserving vegetables and fruits through canning and drying.

You should start your own garden immediately, indoors if necessary and when the frost threat and cold weather ends, plant outdoors. The experience will be invaluable, the achievement in growing your own food is substantial and the feeling that you can cut the threat of inflation and food shortages is a great feeling.

Having seeds and the ability to grow your own food IS survival!

Urban Survival - World Economy Affects the U.S. and the Coming Collapse

Whether we like it or not, and most of us certainly don’t, a World economy exists and disruptions within this economy have major effects on the U.S. economy. For some of you knuckle draggers out there, the World economy s not the same as the infamous “One World Government” concept, however make no mistake about it there are people, and people in powerful positions who desire a one world government. But what I am talking about it the global economy and how inflation and collapses in other countries combined with nationalistic trends greatly effects not only how the U.S. economy reacts but dials up the chances and effects of a economic collapse in this Country.

The United States is a consumer and much less the manufacturer or provider like we were 50 years ago. We are simply dependent on other countries not only for consumer goods, but largely for foods and particularly so for oil. Without the our military power and demonstrated willingness to use it, our need for oil can be leveraged by the world’s producers and other large consumers (China, Russia and others). This can, and will, as some experts predict, drive the price of gasoline up to $7 a gallon by the end of this calendar year.

In China , trying for an orderly transition to new civilian leadership in the near future will face a threat from their own military which is executing an unprecedented growth in military expansion and technological development. There is a rift between the civilian Chinese leadership and the military that will only grow as their own economy suffers from reverberations from the decaying U.S. and global economy. If the U.S. defaults on debt owed to China , and as the U.S. necessarily voids or changes trade agreements as an effort in self preservation – the China problem will pick up steam.

Chinese needs for oil that grown at an incredible rate. It will only further grow not only driving the price up but create potential political firestorms as the global economy competes for a limited supply.

Just image gasoline at $7 a gallon. That means Diesel fuel even higher. That means all consumer goods, being trucked across the country, at never to expected high prices. Imagine bread at $6 a loaf,…..milk at $12 a gallon and you start to get the picture. Most people don’t know it now, but consumer commodities have risen an average of 43%. Some of you may admit that in the back fo your head you are aware of growing prices, but it will be really evident when that percentage increases to 400%, 600% or even $1000.

Fuel oil for heating will be at astronomical prices. Electricity, since much of it is produced by fuel oil driven plants, at twice to three times what you pay now. In short everything will go up in price and go up exponentially. This is inflation,…no,…this will be hyper inflation.

What will not go up is your income or buying power. In fact, that will take a dive. If you near the poverty level, this will have incredible and dire consequences for you and your family’s ability to survive. This will also produce a large class of people that will be desperate. This number may reach 60 million. Imagine 60 million people, a full 20% of the U.S. population who cannot sustain themselves.

The U.S. government will have to create large scale entitlement programs just in order to feed these people and keep anarchy at bay. I fully expect the deployment of first line U.S. military combat units to enforce martial laws in some high population density areas. The U.S. government will not be able to borrow more money, so they will print more fiat currency further driving us into hyper inflation….and eventual anarchy.

Beginning in maybe April, certainly no later than July, the banks, lenders, housing market and certainly the people will take a giant hit as adjustable rate mortgages will be re-set causing a large number of people to be upside down in their homes (that is owing much more than the property is worth), and interest rates will skyrocket. Foreclosures will exceed previous record highs. The government will try to control this with more stimulus money drawn from a empty bank account further deflating money and adding to the hyper inflation, and may try to control the dive through government take over (nationalizing) of banks and maybe the whole mortgage industry. This will embolden the U.S. Government to nationalize other segments of the economy such as health care, insurance, and possibly the oil industry.

All of this spells doom for us. What can you do? Do what you are doing now,…..preparing for inevitable. But do it smarter. And do it at an increase pace. And above all, wargame your plan against all the possible scenarios. I have long said that Survival is a Team Sport,..but it is also a thinking man’s game.

Reader Question on Survival Group Networking

An UrbanSurvivalSkills.com reader wrote: "Urban Man, This site has got me going, I am like so many people, caught on my heals.

I live in a major city in the West (City and State deleted), do you know of any survival prep networks out here? I'm feeling very isolated and alone in these suburbs. I am not a home owner, but I have some bug out provisions (and will purchase a Henry AR-7)...My main concern is that I don't have a survival group...how can I find partners?"

There are several survival forums where people are private messaging each other for survival networking and coordination. Some of the better survival forums are: NoBullShitSurvival Forum

Survivalistboards.com

WhenSHTF.com

Survivalmonkey.com

However I would be very wary about linking with people you don't know. You have no idea about their morals, religious beliefs, etc. Maintain your Operational Security. Last thing you want to do is to advertise what you have and where you are located to people with evil intentions.

I think you're Survival Group is going to be mostly people you know prior to the collapse. Some of these people also know people you don't, so any planned Survival Group will grow. You need to be able to control that growth somewhat. You don't want a bunch of dickheads, losers, criminals or slackers as part of your group.

I would simply make a list of people you know, like and trust. Maybe you can also do an inventory on their skills and what they would bring to a Survival Group. I have spent over 30 years in various Government positions carrying a gun. Having said that I would much rather than a bunch of people un-skilled with firearms who I trust and could train, then a bunch of Special Operators with type A personalities who would be problems.

I would approach people on your list and just ask some simple questions to gauge their ability to comprehend the concept of preparedness and whether or not they'll think you are a nut.

There are a couple of government sites that recommend preparing such as ready.gov which preaches preparedness.

You could tell people "Hey, I found this government site which advocates preparedness for natural disasters and such. After looking at it I realized I wasn't prepared at all? What about you? Have you thought about this?

People that you talk to and expose yourself as planning (at some level) for a disaster or collapse, may be the first ones showing up at your house if a collapse hits.

The AR-7 survival rifle is a good tool, but not nearly as accurate are other .22 LR long guns. I think everyone needs .22LR firearms in their survival battery, both handguns and long guns. But make no mistake about it .22LR firearms are pathetic for defense.

Some of the "non-gun" people I advise on Urban Survival prep now have at least a centerfire handgun and a 12 gauge shotgun, but defense is absolutely necessary.

Above all have a Bug Out plan. If there is no food in the stores, electricity goes out, riots in the streets, etc. where are you going to go? What are your routes? (plan for multiple routes - Pri, Alt, Contingency and Emergency); how are going to survive (food, water, shelter) when you get where you are going?

Lastly, buy some silver if you are able to. Whatever you can afford.

Hope this helps.

UrbanMan